13.8. 8. In what Manner the Deception is preserved.
In order to make the
purchaser confound the price of the commodity with the impost, there
must be some proportion between the impost and the value of the
commodity: for which reason there ought not to be an excessive duty upon
merchandise of little value. There are countries in which the duty
exceeds seventeen or eighteen times the value of the commodity. In this
case the prince removes the disguise: his subjects plainly see they are
dealt with in an unreasonable manner, which renders them most
exquisitely sensible of their servile condition.
Besides, the prince, to be able to levy a duty so disproportioned to
the value of the commodity, must be himself the vendor, and the people
must not have it in their power to purchase it elsewhere: a practice
subject to a thousand inconveniences.
Smuggling being in this case extremely lucrative, the natural and
most reasonable penalty, namely, the confiscation of the merchandise,
becomes incapable of putting a stop to it; especially as this very
merchandise is intrinsically of inconsiderable value. Recourse must
therefore be had to extravagant punishments, such as those inflicted for
capital crimes.
All proportion then of penalties is at an end. Persons that cannot
really be considered as vicious are punished like the most infamous
criminals; which of all things in the world is the most contrary to the
spirit of a moderate government.
Again, in proportion as people are tempted to cheat the farmer of
the revenues, the more the latter is enriched, and the former
impoverished. To put a stop to smuggling, the farmer must be invested
with extraordinary means of oppressing, and then the country is ruined.
